D&D 4E New 4E term "combat advantage"

[Chris_Nightwing]

I wonder if the Monster Manual will have Fuzzywuzzies..

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

Not to go too much off on a Dad's Army tangent and lose the entireity of the non-UK members of this board...

...but I'm sure that "Who Do You Think You Are Kidding Mr Tiefling?" would start a session off wonderfully!

 

[BASHMAN]

I have a feeling it is generic term to apply to various situations giving a flat bonus to hit-- +2-4 let's say.

Various things could grant combat advantage.

1. The enemy is flat-footed
2. the enemy is flanked
3. The enemy is prone vs. melee attack
4. The enemy is unarmed
5. The attacker is invisible or hidden
6. The attacker is charging
7. The attacker goes first in the round

Do these things stack? Don't know. Maybe it is +4, and additional +1 / condition. So a flanked, flat-footed, prone, target would have +6 to be hit... Maybe it is a flat +2 / condition. In which cast a flanked, flat-footed, prone target would have +6 against them... Maybe it is nastier +4 w/ +2 per conditon (+8 in that situation), or just +3 per condition (+9). I think that'd be a REALLY easy way to handle it-- instead of having prone, flanking, and flat-footed all give DIFFERENT advantages-- give them all the same and make them stackable.

Rogues and possibly rangers likely have special abilities that hurt enemies when they have combat advantage-- sneak attack, sniping abilities, etc. Fighters and later barbarians will capitalize by being able to pull off power attacks (with a static -5 to hit +10 damage instead of a sliding scale I bet).

Barbarians and monks (when they get added) probably will have some ability to mitigate enemies' combat advantage. If it is normally +3 per condition, maybe against barbs & monks it is +2 per condition, then later only +1, and eventually 0 unless they are helpless...

If this is how it works, I think that'd be really cool!

 

[frankthedm]

+2 for flanking
No dex modifier while grappled
+2 to hit while invisible
-2 to your ac while blinded
No dex modifier while flatfooted
No dex modifier while balancing

These I suspect as well will fall under Combat advantage since on the most part they do have similar results.

+1 for higher ground

I hope to all hell that a few feet of hieght wont auto enable sneak attack.

-4 to your ac while prone

This too I'd Hope they stick with tradition and not allow sneak attack just due to the prone condition.

 

[Traycor]

But what exactly is "combat advantage"? *snip* More likely it will probably be a power trigger, such as bloodied.

Sweet! This sounds fantastic.

 

[RigaMortus2]

I think it means either:

1) New name for flat-footed
2) Just means you get to go before someone else during the 1st round of combat. Going BEFORE anyone else gets to go is a combat advantage after all.

 

[Lanefan]

Not to go too much off on a Dad's Army tangent and lose the entireity of the non-UK members of this board...

...but I'm sure that "Who Do You Think You Are Kidding Mr Tiefling?" would start a session off wonderfully!

Wonderfully...or really, really badly, depending.

Lane-"now I've got that bloody song stuck in my head, thanks"-fan

 

[ShinRyuuBR]

This too I'd Hope they stick with tradition and not allow sneak attack just due to the prone condition.

Yeah, and a prone stunned target should be easier to hit than a target that is just prone or just stunned. These should still stack.

 

[Li Shenron]

My first idea was that "combat advantage" is a replacement name for "flat-footed", except that it focuses on the guy with the advantage and not the one with disadvantage. And that every class has abilities that require to have combat adv, much like in 3e sneak attack requires the target to be flat-footed.

 

[Patlin]

It's probably also impossible for two parties to have CA against each other at the same time.

Possibly so, but if it includes flanking it's certainly possible to be flanking someone who's also flanking you. It therefore seems likely to me that two combatants might both have combat advantage against one another. A rule prohibiting that could be complicated.